GREGORY P Lee tap-in squashes Bees... and c
STOKE CITY 1 BRENTFORD 0
SCOTT PARKER claimed all the pressure is on West Brom and
Brentford after Fulham took the battle for automatic promotion to a thrilling last-day scramble.
Two goals each from Neeskens Kebano and Aleksandar Mitrovic (above) – now the Championship’s top scorer – saw Fulham close the gap on the two wobbling teams above them.
Victory at Wigan on Wednesday, along with a defeat for the secondplaced Baggies and the Bees failing to win, would see the Cottagers back into the top flight without even the need of the play-offs.
Parker said: “The pressure is on the other teams now. It is not in our hands.”
Kebano, opened the scoring with his first goal since December
2017. Mitrovic doubled the lead with the goal of the game and the Serbian then rammed home a penalty for his 26th Fulham league goal of the season, after Dominic Iorfa brought down Kebano in the box.
Wednesday briefly threatened a ridiculous comeback as Atdhe Nuhiu first netted from the spot after Cottagers keeper Marek Rodak brought down Jacob Murphy.
Kebano had seemed to end the contest after 73 minutes when he rolled a free-kick under the wall.
But then Murphy saw his deflected shot find the corner of the net and Nuhiu headed home his second to take the score to 4-3 before seven minutes of injury time. Substitute Bobby Decordova-Reid sealed the win with a low shot from outside the box.
FULHAM SHEFF WED 8 ........ Shots on Target ......... 6 1 ......... Shots off Target ......... 5 4 ................ Corners ................. 8 12 ................. Fouls .................. 14 2 ............... Offsides ................. 2 81 ...... Pass Success % .... 71.9 490 ...... Total Passes ........ 320 59.1 ..... Possession % ..... 40.9 36.4 .Territorial Adv %..63.6
AFTER a word-perfect restart show, poor Brentford got stage fright at the worst possible moment.
Defeat here at Stoke to Lee Gregory’s goal not only confirmed Leeds as champions – without kicking a ball yesterday – but also leaves Brentford staring at the uncertainty of the play-offs.
The west Londoners went from destiny being firmly in their own hands following West Brom’s defeat at Huddersfield, to now relying on a slip up from their close rivals. Put simply, if the Baggies win their final match of the season at home to QPR, they are automatically promoted alongside Leeds.
But Brentford manager Thomas Frank struck a defiant note as he insisted his players did not bottle their chance of glory.
The Dane said: “There will be a lot of experts saying, ‘Oh, they couldn’t cope with the pressure’.
“But Stoke are a difficult team to play against and once they got that goal to hang on to, then it is about very, very small margins.
“Of course it is frustrating, if we say it is not emotional now for the players, staff and me that would be a lie. We would love to go in the final game of the season with our destiny in our own hands – but that is the rollercoaster of football.
“Now we must save our emotion, look forward, reset our emotions and get a fresh hit ready to go again on Wednesday.
“I said to the boys in the dressing room, I am very proud of them.”
For Brentford, this shattering setback is all the crueller because they had won all their matches since football resumed until this fateful visit to the Potteries. And
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